V2nd, C3

[David Payne]

Hang on here -- Sorry if I'm the last one to catch onto this, but I just realized that Stencil has, in this section VIII, inhabited the POV of "the allegorical statue of Tragedy". He has become fully inanimate.

A few points that suggest this:

1. Organization: All the sections mention Stencil's "avatar" early on, and the statue is mentioned early on. All the sections also end--I think--by noting something that is explicitly & solely from the POV of Stencil's avatar, and this section ends with "At rest the body is assumed exactly into the space of this vantage"--the vantage being the vantage point of the statue's line of sight.

2. Description: Note that the narrator is fixed in place (in the corridor facing the window) and describes only what is seen from that one place (with only a few very minor interjections and assumptions). It's almost like watching a silent movie that was filmed by a camera set on a tripod. In this case, the narrator is a statue, and the descriptions are what is in the line of sight of the statue.

3. Voice: Laura noted the "dispassionate" voice. Dispassionate, I think, because the narrator is an inanimate statue. (There's a lot to pick apart on this point. Beyond the lack of narrative sympathy, note the narrator's focus on deadening movements, deadening colors, deadened sound.)

One final note about the closing lines that Laura quoted: "Vision must be the last to go. There must also be a nearly imperceptible line between an eye that reflects and eye that receives." On a literal level, this refers to eyes of the assassinated victim (i.e., there's a point at which the eyes go dead and just reflect light instead of receiving it). But As Laura noted, this is also Stencil's self-reflection (all the sections end with self-reflection, I think), for Stencil has crossed this point. Of course a statue's eyes reflect--and do not receive. But I think that Stencil (or his embodiment) only fully crosses this point at the end of this section.

Three questions:

1. I'm halfway through "Bleak House" but I think that this section borrows heavily from aspects of BH's narration (e.g., scenes in Tulkinghorn's office). Am I on to something here?

2. Can someone point me to an image of the "allegorical statue of Tragedy"? Is it, by chance, without ears?

3. Has Stencil's embodiment in his imaginary scenes has been gradually 
losing its humanity? By section VIII, the narrator can't even hear 
(there are gun shots, etc., but the narrator notes that "the silence is 
total") -- and the narrator reflects that "vision must be the last to 
go". The way to test this theory would be to reread the chapter and look for 
clues of the narrator slowly "dying", losing soul, becoming inanimate. But I'm hoping that one of you can simply recollect the chapter better than I--and answer this question w/o rereading.


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On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:41:43 -0400, Laura (kelber at mindspring.com) wrote:

> The eighth section is different from the others, in that there's no proxy-character for Stencil. Stencil's finally attained something (wisdom? the object of his knightly quest?). The narratorial voice in this section is dispassionate; it summarizes without expressing any opinions, emotions or flights of fancy - until the closing sentences of the section and chapter: Vision must be the last to go, etc. It's the voice of someone describing exactly what he sees. Stencil himself is THERE.
>
> Stencil jumps into this series of projections with a question on his mind. He's lying on Bongo-Shaftsbury the Younger's couch, musing about a time in the past when his host's father murdered a man named Porpentine. What (we can guess he's wondering) might this have to do with V.? Does he have his answer at the end?
>
> "There must also be a nearly imperceptible line between an eye that reflects and an eye that receives." Stencil's finally crossed that line. He doesn't need a proxy protagonist any more, he sees exactly what he needs to. That we don't necessarily get it doesn't matter. What is it he "gets?" That Victoria was a normal girl who got mixed up romantically with Goodfellow the spy. Now that Goodfellow's partner is dead and he's, perhaps, on the run, is this the moment when she turns to Bongo-Shaftsbury (spy and partial cyborg) for comfort, sealing her fate? Something along those lines.
 		 	   		  
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